Markers / Gene
COMT
One position in this gene is readable from a home DNA test.
COMT, the ‘warrior or worrier’ gene, and why that framing is wrong
rs4680 · chr22:19,951,271 · G/A · evidence: moderate
COMT clears dopamine from the prefrontal cortex, and this change slows the enzyme down. It became famous as the gene that decides whether you are a calm performer or an anxious over-thinker. That framing has not held up, which is exactly why it is worth showing you.
| If you carry | What it means |
|---|---|
| No copies | Faster enzyme, two copies |
| One copy | One of each |
| Two copies | Slower enzyme, two copies |
| Ancestry group | A (the effect version) | |
|---|---|---|
| African | 28.1% | |
| American | 37.8% | |
| East Asian | 28.0% | |
| European | 50.0% | |
| South Asian | 44.1% |
1000 Genomes Project phase 3, via Ensembl, retrieved 2026-09-23. These groupings are coarse and flatten a great deal of internal diversity, particularly within Africa. A variant being common somewhere tells you where a piece of your ancestry probably comes from, and nothing else.
If you have taken a home DNA test, these positions are already in your file.
Read my file